Regional dust-impacted areas originating from eastern Iran identified via visual interpretation of MODIS Terra/Aqua imagery (2000–2023)

Dust plumes were identified through visual interpretation of sub-daily MODIS Terra/Aqua true-color composite (RGB) imagery using NASA’s EOSDIS Worldview platform. On-screen digitizing in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment was used to delineate the spatial extent of each dust event based on plume dispersion from identified dust hotspots.

To enhance temporal accuracy, imagery from both Terra (~10:30 local time) and Aqua (~13:30 local time) satellites was used, improving detection during daylight hours. Spatial and temporal clustering of adjacent dust hotspots was performed to group them into individual dust events. For multi-day events, the largest visible extent, captured before plume dissipation, was selected as the final footprint.